I Hate Candies (New Version)
by honeyandpancakes
Summary: Louisa Robinson is a bit strange to say the least; an avid collector of socks, the friend and flatmate of a furry creature named Mr. Monroe, and a master at playing pirates, but as surprising as it may be, even the most vivacious and spirited woman in town can have bitter and hateful feelings hidden deep within her heart; something that may have been caused by a candy maker...


"Do you like chocolate?"

Louisa's crystal eyes flickered.

"Of course!"

She in fact hated them. But by this point, she didn't care. (After all, how could you ever possibly hope for someone to like you if you don't like exactly the same things as him?)

The two took a turn down the street.

"I do, even though I hardly ever get to have them."

"Why?"

Willy sighed.

"Well, my father is very insistent on his 'zero-sugar' rules and guidelines. In the fine print he said specifically that I mustn't have any candy of any kind, especially chocolate."

They stopped in front of Miss Cherry's Sugary Confectionaries.

"All I could every wish for is those candies. I don't think anything else in the world matters. Sweets are our livelihoods Louisa, without them we'd be, well,"

"Sweet-less."

He turned and looked at her, away from all the juicy gumdrops and chocolate fountains. She sighed at his marvelousness.

"You're so smart Willy." She gawked.

A sudden lightbulb turned on inside of Louisa's head. Why, her family were mad about those things (though she could never possibly understand herself why one would possibly want to dedicate their entire life to candy), and her family always gave her far too many sweets than she could ever want.

"Willy, do you like breaking rules?"

She'd take them from the candy room (not too much, as to be discreet), hide them in her secret compartment in her backpack (she had sewn it in herself, no one would know), and she'd put them in, and give them to him after school when they were alone.

"What do you mean?"

"Would you break them to get what you want?"

Surely then he'd like her back.

He paused, and the corners of his lips curled upwards.

"…Yes, of course."

So, the next few weeks were like a walking-dream for Louisa. The two would race up Perrywinkle hill and sit on the swings, and Louisa would cling to every word Willy spoke. He told her of how he wanted to become a chocolatier, but how his father disapproved of the idea ('no son of mine will be a chocolatier'), but he preferred the term connoisseur, because of how Louisa was helping him.

It was almost as if it was a professor testing experimenting, and his assistant by his side, taking down every note he made, except it was all chocolates.

He would make the greatest candies in the world, he said, and he was determined that the only way to do that was to try every candy in the world that already existed, so that he could best them.

Such an obvious solution for Louisa (pfft, of course), so they did just that.

Some were sour, some were too sweet,

Some were bitter, and some were salty?

Some were pretty, and others not.

One day when they had come to the last chocolate, Willy turned to Louisa who had been in the middle of having a passionate argument with Oliver when he offered the first half of a chocolate-swirl chocolate.

She swallowed in a nervous sweat, and accepted the candy, and as she took a deep breath in, she took a bite.

She let the flavours swirl in her mouth before her eyes opened to find that she liked the way it tasted. She smiled, and handed Willy the other half, a bit dream-like and as she watched him popped the other half into his mouth, she took out her root-beer bottle and took a gulp.

"You ever tried root beer Willy?"

He shook his head in a negative, and he took the bottle offered to him, placing it on his lips and ducking his head back to take a drink. His face immediately scrunched up at the taste, spitting it out, and exclaimed,

"How could anyone ever drink this!?"

"You kissed me."

He turned in surprise.

Louisa's lips hung in a smile, and Willy looked on in horror.

"W-what do you mean?"

"Your lips touched mine. Well, technically speaking."

His cheeks flushed up for the first time that she had known him, and she leaned forward.

"My mama told me nothing good can be born,

without havin' a little bit of fun."

"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about Louisa, have you gone mad!?"

"You wanna be a chocolatier right?"

He nodded cautiously.

"Well, I got you this far. I know you'll be big when you're, _bigger_." She stood up.

"Aaaand, since I've given you all this, don't you think you might owe me a little somethin'?"

She teased, her back turned to him.

Willy's brows furrowed.

He sat up and stood by her side.

"What do you want me from me Louisa? A kiss?"

Louisa quickly turned to face him.

"Oh, please Willy, just once, I won't ask for another, I'll be a good first kiss!"

He pursed his lips, his eyes wandered to the side of his head, thinking…

"Fine."

Her heart jumped.

"Just this once."

"This once!"

"And that'll be it."

"Yes! Oh, yes! I promise!"

There was slight hesitation, but Willy quickly put his hand on her waist, his thumb tracing her lower lip briefly before tipping his head to the left and diving in.

Her whole body lit up like a thunderbolt, and for a moment she didn't know what to do. Her breath was gone, but slowly and surely, her hands found the side of his head, and she pressed her hands tightly against him.

His lips felt like cotton candy, so much softer than she could have ever imagined. And she could not have expected his cheeks to be like clouds beneath her fingers. It was all too much, like melting chocolate in the hot summer sun, she could feel her knees growing weak, and it was felt all very good for Louisa.

It was so good that when he parted for air, she couldn't help but gasp at the sudden loss of touch. But it wasn't long before he found her lips again, this time stretching and moving.

She whispered against his mouth in a weird dream-like yet concerned way,

" _But, I thought only once_."

He looked into her eyes. She froze.

"Don't you know Louisa?" She looked quizzically in his arms.

He sighed.

He inched closer, his lips a hair apart, the smell of mint and chocolate filling her senses,

"I _always_ , want seconds."


End file.
